Contents

Foreword

I have set out my intention to deliver clarity of purpose for
all who are involved in Scottish education. Currently, we have a
number of plans setting out key activity across the system.

In publishing this 2017 National Improvement Framework and
Improvement Plan, I am bringing information together in a single,
definitive document that explains for everyone how we will secure
educational improvement.

The vision, the priorities and the drivers of improvement we
identified last year have stakeholder support, and remain as true
and as important now as they did when the first National
Improvement Framework was published 11 months ago. It is likely
that the sources of evidence to inform our knowledge will continue
to develop over the coming year, so these will be updated on the
Scottish Government website as they emerge.

This Improvement Plan brings together the improvement activities
from the Delivery Plan published in June, and the Curriculum for
Excellence Implementation Plan published in September, and sets out
our high-level strategic plans for improvement and identifies
specific improvement activity. I am also publishing today the 2016
National Improvement Framework Evidence Report.

The primary purpose of the National Improvement Framework is to
drive improvement for children and young people. To make that
happen, we need a clear flow of information and clear actions on
delivering improvement in all parts of the education system.
Education Scotland is writing to all schools today to share with
them clear and succinct guidance on what they need to consider to
make the priorities of the National Improvement Framework a reality
in their school.

There is, for all of us, a moral imperative to realise the key
priorities of this Framework and Plan:- raising attainment; closing
the poverty-related attainment gap; improving health and wellbeing,
improving positive school-leaver destinations and achieving our
ambition of excellence and equity in Scottish education.

The
OECD
and our International Council of Education Advisers have endorsed
our approach to education in Scotland, and have provided advice
about where we need to improve. We are on course to deliver these
improvements through the actions we have in place. We will continue
to build on these in 2017 as we consider the recommendations of the
governance review and the National Parent Forum's review of the
Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006.

I will focus relentlessly on the pace and intensity of
implementation. We must come together to drive forward the
improvements that our children and young people so richly
deserve.

John Swinney
MSPDeputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education
and Skills13 December 2016